ACS (ADVANCED COMBAT SYSTEMS Ltd.) Hezi SM-1

ACS (ADVANCED COMBAT SYSTEMS Ltd.) "Hezi" SM-1
ACS (Advanced Combat Systems) Ltd. of Israel (see their webpage, still under construction, at: http://www.advancedcombat.com/) has shown their HEZI SM-1 carbine. Advertised as "Israel's new street-legal PDW", the HEZI SM-1 is a bull-pup conversion of the .30 M1 carbine. By now it's sold as a conversion kit (looks like that, if you're a Law Enforcement Agency, you can buy it and do the work by yourself, or ship your M1s to ACS and have the HEZI SM-1s shipped back), and WHY it was made, it's pretty simple: the .30-Carbine caliber and the M1 carbine are widely used by the Israeli Police, which has also longtime abandoned the GALIL. Actually, Israel is the ONLY COUNTRY in which the M1 Carbine is still manufactured, but APPEARENTLY Israel Arms International (IAI, the ONLY active manufacturer of M1 Carbines in the world) is planning to shut the production down. The .30-M1 caliber, which has enough knockdown power for the Israeli cops, is BELOVED, but the need of a shorter gun for certain rapid reaction teams and, later, for all the average cops, is felt. IMI tried to launch the well-known MAGAL, but, well... read what the ISAYERET.COM website says about the MAGAL (the parenthesis are MINE, taken from other pages of the same website or from notes of my knowledge):
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Originally, the Magal was supposed to replace most M16 weapons used by the non SF police units as well as the M1 carbines used by the Israeli Civil Guard, and a contact of 4000 Magal units was awarded to IMI. The weapon was also offered for other countries Law Enforcement agencies.
The first 1,000 units were supplied to the Israeli Police for Testing and Evaluation (T&E) in 1999-2000, with another order of 3000 MAGAL units pending on the initial order's success.
The MAGAL was intensively used in the recent Israeli-Palestinian clashes in the Territories and had proved to be a most unreliable weapon. The problem was attributed to its extremely short barrel which produced insufficient gas pressure, especially when barrel mounted accessories such as riot control devices were in place (which led to a long series of severe operational failures).
Eventually, in early 2001 the usage of MAGAL in the Police was almost completely suspended and most of them were sent back to the IMI for improvements
Later, IMI continued to supply the police with the remaining 3000 units. However, most combat units switched to the 5'56mm Galil MAR (new production, and military units only) and the Colt Commando (again, Military Units only).
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The HEZI SM-1, so, seems the perfect idea to keep M1s and the .30-Carbine in service, obtaining shorter, more maneuverable, trustable and multi-function weapons with a "standard" barrel lenght. Plans for civilian distribution of this product have been already made, with the USA in mind as "first customers".
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TECHNICAL SPECS:
CALIBER: .30-M1 (.7'62X33mm)
CAPACITY: 10, 15, 20 or 30 rounds magazines
TOTAL WEIGHT: 2,9 Kilograms
TOTAL LENGHT: 661 Millimeters
BARREL LENGHT: 457 Millimeters
EFFECTIVE RANGE: 140 Meters
RATE OF FIRE: 60 Rounds Per Minute
BULLET VELOCITY: 600 Meters per Second
HESTIMATED PRICE: 500 US$